


Break Time

by Desdemon



Category: Animorphs - Katherine A. Applegate
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-23
Updated: 2013-12-23
Packaged: 2018-01-05 16:32:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,712
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1096138
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Desdemon/pseuds/Desdemon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Marco tells a story.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Break Time

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Zanganito](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zanganito/gifts).



> Ever so slightly updated for the noughties - smartphones now coexist with Animorphs. Set mid-series. Happy Yuletide, Zanganito!!

My name is Marco.  I’d tell you my last name, but then they’d know how to find me.  You know: “they”.  The bad guys.  The Yeerks.  It’s a long story, but basically my friends and I are freedom fighters, and if we want to keep fighting, we’ve got to stay anonymous.  It’s a drag, but necessary.  Sometimes I’d like to tell everybody - what’s the harm?  If everybody knew, everybody could fight.  But Jake - that’s my best friend, and our unofficial group leader - says that if everybody knew, everybody would be in danger.  Including the people we love.  Like my dad.

He’s right, of course.  We can’t tell anybody.  So just call me Marco for now.

I don’t really have it in me to tell you about our latest mission.  It was terrifying, the odds were completely stacked against us, and we barely managed to escape with our lives - so basically just another average day.  Take it from me, being part of an underground resistance isn’t the most relaxing of after-school hobbies.  For one thing, I’m not getting college credit.  And did I mention the constantly almost dying thing?  Maybe I should join a scrapbooking club or something instead.

Anyway, I’m not going to tell you about our last mission.  If all you hear about is the missions, you could get the impression that our lives are just one long constant desperate losing battle.  I mean, if that’s what you thought, you wouldn’t be totally wrong.  But there are good things too.  Sometimes, in the middle of all the crazy alien stuff and the crazy transforming into animals stuff - did I mention that my friends and I can transform into animals? - something good happens.  And you’d be surprised how hard it is to keep doing the crazy stuff if you don’t take some time to appreciate the good stuff.  Everybody needs a break, you know?  So I want to tell you about one of the good times.

This is the story of the first time Ax ever used an iPhone.

<If one of you will bring me a primitive tool set, I can modify the phone to be untraceable, like I did with each of yours,> Ax said.  Well, he didn’t so much say it as he did think it.  Ax doesn’t really have a mouth.

Maybe I should explain that Ax is an alien.  Not an evil alien like the Yeerks, though - he’s one of the good guys.  His people are called the Andalites, and they’ve been fighting the Yeerks for years.  They also invented the technology for morphing.  Ax stands for Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill, but just try getting through that mouthful every time you want to say hello.  We call him “Ax” instead.

“I’m not sure it’s such a good idea either way,” said Jake.  “What if somebody finds it?  Where would you keep it?  Here?”  We were camped out in Cassie’s barn.  It’s a good headquarters because her dad’s a vet and he rescues a lot of forest animals.  If we ever need a new bird or rodent morph, Cassie’s got us covered.

<Tobias has agreed to keep it in his roost,> Ax explained.  <Since he and I both live here, it will be easy for him to bring it to me.  Of course I will have to be in my human morph to use it, so it is not necessary that the phone always stay here.>

<Also, it doesn’t happen very often, but sometimes I need to get in touch and you guys are out of flying range,>, Tobias added from his perch on one of the rafters.  <This would be a good emergency system for contacting you.>

Oh, yeah - I should probably also mention that Tobias is a bird.

“If Tobias is going to hang on to it, I’d say why not,” Rachel put in, probably because of her secret crush on Tobias that everybody knows about.  It’s the same old story.  Girl meets boy, boy turns into a bird and accidentally stays that way permanently, boy can never take girl to the movies due to being a bird.  Happens every day.

I’m making light of it, but it’s actually really sad.  Tobias doesn’t make a big deal out of it, but in a lot of ways he’s lost more than any of us.  I mean, the guy lives in a tree.

There I go again, making things dark.  And I’m the funny one in the group!  It’s my job to keep everyone laughing so that we all don’t go totally insane instead.  So no more sad stuff.  Only jokes.

I take my role as morale officer very seriously, so what I said was, “Has it occured to anyone that Ax using an iPhone is going to be hilarious?  We should definitely, definitely get him one.”

Rachel rolled her eyes.  Cassie just blinked at me like maybe she was disappointed.  Ax said, <Hilarious in what way?>  He wasn’t mad, just curious.  He basically never gets my jokes.  I think he views them as fascinating Earth artifacts like toothbrushes and drive-throughs.

“He means it’s going to be hard for you to use,” Jake said.  “And he might be right.  Are you sure the learning curve won’t be too much for you?”

<I am a member of a highly enlightened race that has been traveling the stars for millennia,> Ax reminded Jake.  I’m pretty sure it wasn’t just me imagining the haughty tone of his thought-speak, because Cassie glanced at me with repressed laughter in her eyes.  <Andalite technology far surpasses anything on Earth, as you five know especially well.  I will be just fine.>

So of course, which one of us got butt-dialed like six times in a row as soon as Ax got his blue furry hands on an iPhone?  This guy.  I guess it was karma for thinking it would be funny - like the universe was saying, oh yeah?  I’ll show you funny.

“Ax,” I said loudly into the phone on the sixth call.  It was one in the morning.  On a school night.  “You need to hang up your phone.  Ax!”

Nothing.  Just forest sounds, and a rhythmic thumping that I thought was probably Ax’s hooves on grass.  He was out for a run, probably wearing the stupid armband Cassie so thoughtfully bought for him so he could carry his stupid phone in Andalite form, probably having a really super great time.

“Aaaaax,” I moaned into the phone.  I stuffed a pillow on top of my head.  I couldn’t yell or find an airhorn or something because it was so late at night.  My dad is a scientist and he does a lot of really important work.  He needs his sleep.

I heard something weird on the phone, a bunch of funny cracking and popping noises, along with something wet and squelchy.  I realized what I was listening to and made a face.

“Gross,” I said, and then Ax’s human voice finally responded: “Marco?”

“Hi Ax,” I said, like it was a totally normal time of day to be having a conversation with my buddy.  “How are you doing?”

“It is very late for you to be calling,” Ax said.  “Calling.  Call.  Cuh.  Cuh.  Cuh.”

Ax doesn’t usually have a mouth, so when he’s in his human form, he really likes to make mouth sounds.  Really, really likes it.

“I didn’t call you, Ax,” I said with what I thought was an admirable amount of patience.  “You’ve been calling me for the last hour by accident.”

“Impossible,” Ax protested.  “This device has an electronic loh-loh-lock on it.  Lllllllock.”

“I’m gonna take a wild guess and say you unlocked it,” I said.

“What if I’ve called someone else by accident?” Ax asked, sounding more distressed about that than about the fact that he called me in the first place.

“Then someone else is probably losing sleep.  And patience,” I added pointedly.

“I’m sorry, Marco,” Ax said sincerely.  “I know humans need an average of eight hours to function optimally.  Optimally.  Optimmm-”

“That’s okay, Ax,” I said loudly.  “It’s okay.  It’s fine.  I’ll make up the sleep in algebra class.  I usually do.  Look in your recent calls menu to see who else you called, okay?”

“Okay, Marco,” Ax said.  “Thank you.  Kuhhh.  Kuhh.  Thank-kuhhhh.  You.”

“You’re welcome, Ax,” I said wearily.  I fell asleep almost before I heard the call click off.  My head was still under the pillow.

The next day at exactly noon, I got the following text: _Thank you for your patience, Marco.  You are a very good friend._  And then there was a bunch of little symbols: a smiley face, a little monkey, a thumbs up, and a handshake.  I think the monkey was a reference to my most powerful and therefore favorite morph: a gorilla.  Either that or Ax just pressed a bunch of buttons all at once.

I debated texting back something like, _Yeah yeah, save the mushy stuff_ , or _You’re darn right I’m a good friend!_ , but in the end I just sent, _No problem, Ax_.  Some times are good for jokes and some times you just say what you mean.  

I know it sounds like I was annoyed with Ax for most of the story, and at the time, yeah, it was pretty annoying to be woken up in the middle of the night, but really, I’m glad Ax has my number.  He’s weird and he’s literally an alien and god help whoever’s around when he gets near human food, but he’s one of us.  We’re in this together.  And when it comes to the war, and the long struggle we went through, the fighting is the stuff that kind of fades out of your mind.  The little things, like the time Ax called me over and over at one in the morning and then sent me a weird text, stick.  You’d think it would be the other way around, but it’s not.  Bad things get better over time.  Good things stay good.

I don’t want to get all sappy on you, so I’ll leave it there.  I’ll get back to the horrifying missions later - don’t worry, there’s plenty of those.  But today, I thought I’d tell a nice story for once.  No real reason.  Everybody needs a break, you know?


End file.
